COMMGMT 1001 - Introduction to Management I

North Terrace Campus - Semester 1 - 2016

The course information on this page is being finalised for 2016. Please check again before classes commence.

This course introduces students to the roles and functions of managers. The content includes an introduction to organisations and the need for and nature of management. It examines the evolution of management theory, organisational environments, and corporate social responsibility and ethics. The course also includes a detailed investigation of the four functions of management: planning and decision making, organising, leading and motivating, and controlling.

This course introduces students to the roles and functions of managers. The content includes an introduction to organisations and the need for and nature of management. It examines the evolution of management theory, organisational environments, and corporate social responsibility and ethics. The course also includes a detailed investigation of the four functions of management: planning and decision making, organising, leading and motivating, and controlling.

Course Timetable

Course Learning Outcomes

This course is designed to develop student awareness of organisations and the variety of skills useful in managerial roles, foster a spirit of critical inquiry and stimulate student pursuit of personal development and lifelong learning. By the end of this course students should be able to:

1. Demonstrate a foundational knowledge of the diversity of management thinking2. Autonomously and collaboratively research, analyse, evaluate, synthesise and apply knowledge in a timely fashion from wide inquiry of a variety of sources3. Demonstrate awareness of research as a source of contested and uncertain knowledge 4. Effectively communicate their findings independently and as part of a group using an evolving variety of media

University Graduate Attributes

Required Resources

It is required you have continuous access to the following text in order to complete tutorial exercises and online quizzes:Samson, D. and Daft, R.L. (2015) Fundamentals of Management (5th Asia Pacific Edition) Cengage Learning: Australia.

You will need to purchase MindTap, the online learning platform, to access the required exercises and quizzes. MindTap includes an e-book of the course text. The retail price for MindTap standalone is $82.75, and the printed text standalone (without MindTap) $137.95. The publisher has agreed to offer MindTap (including e-book of the text) at $50.95 to enrolled students in this course. Students who experience difficulty in the purchase should talk to the course co-ordinators, and potential assistance may be provided.

Recommended Resources

You have access to numerous resources in the library including scholarly journals and alternative contemporary texts on management. You are encouraged to read widely and critically with a focus on recent work (less than 5 years old) in periodicals, refereed academic journals and books.

The Communication Skills Guide and The University of Adelaide Writing Centre are helpful resources for your academic writing and observance of the protocols and conventions of the Harvard referencing style.

Online Learning

The course utilises MyUni as a communication and assessment tool. Students should be actively scanning the MyUni course webpage regularly. In addition, this course uses MindTap for critical learning activities throughout the semester. It is important that students complete the required online activities and assessments on both MyUni and MindTap.

Learning & Teaching Modes

This course is delivered through 12 weekly lectures (focused on one topic per week) of two hours duration. Lectures are supported by 11 one-hour tutorials and group meetings with a mentor of the group's choice. These activities are important interactive components of your learning. Preparation and active attendance at tutorials and the completion of online quizzes is required.

Workload

The information below is provided as a guide to assist students in engaging appropriately with the course requirements.

The information below is provided as a guide to assist students in engaging appropriately with the course requirements.

The information below is provided as a guide to assist students in engaging appropriately with the course requirements.

The University expects full-time students (i.e. those taking 12 units per semester) to devote a total of 48 hours per week to their studies. Students in this three-unit course are expected to attend lectures (2 hours), their allocated tutorial class (1 hour) and meetings with their team-mates and tutors over the semester. This means you are expected to commit approximately 9 hours a week to private study.

Learning Activities Summary

Please refer to Course Outline on MyUni

Small Group Discovery Experience

Small Group Discovery Experience: This activity is aimed at you, as part of a group formed early in the semester, discovering your own meaning of a management related research activity. Your group will be expected to meet with your tutor and/or lecturer to discuss and explore the best way to complete this project. You are required to actively participate in all aspects of the assignment (e.g. in research, analysis, critical thinking, group work) to provide a foundation for the development of your skills in your ongoing studies. Equal contribution from each group member is expected.

Assessment must enable robust and fair judgements about student performance.

Assessment practices must be fair and equitable to students and give them the opportunity to demonstrate what they have learned.

Assessment must maintain academic standards.

Assessment Summary

Item 1

Description

Due

Contribution to Final Grade

LO

1

Weekly quizzes (x11)

Ongoing from Week 2

10%

1

2

Tutorial participation and preparation (x11)

Ongoing from Week 2

10%

1, 4

3

Individual assignment

5.59pm Friday 1 April

15%

1, 2, 3, 4

4

Group assignment

5.59pm Friday 20 May

25%

1, 2, 3, 4

5

Exam

TBA

40%

1, 3

Assessment Related Requirements

To pass this course, a combined mark of 50% must be obtained from all assessments.

Students who receive course mark between 45% and 49% may be offered a supplementary exam. Your performance in the replacement assessment will determine whether you are awarded a Pass grade for the course with a maximum aggregate course mark of 50%

Attempting online quizzes in a timely fashion (before/during the relevant topic week) is expected and recommended as that quiz will close after that week’s topic is completed. Attendance at all tutorials is expected and your attendance will be recorded. You are expected to come prepared to discuss the questions outlined in the tutorial workbook and contribute to all associated activities.

Assessment Detail

Assessment 1: Weekly Quizzes (10%)

This assessment is aimed at growing your knowledge of the management discipline in preparation for assessments 2, 3, 4 and 5. From Week 2, MindTap will host 11 weekly text-based multiple choice quizzes (best 10 counted). Each quiz (starting with the week 1 and 2 topics) will assess material covered in the associated topic and will provide you with the opportunity to test your learning and identify areas that require further study. This will help you prepare for the current tutorial topic, assignments and final examination at the end of the semester. Attempting online quizzes in a timely fashion (before and during the topic week) is recommended as the relevant quiz will close after the topic is completed.

Assessment 2: Tutorial Participation and Preparation (10%)

This assessment is aimed at growing your knowledge of the management discipline and your awareness of academic and management competencies in preparation for assessments 3, 4 and 5. You are expected to attend all scheduled tutorials prepared to discuss your thinking concerning the questions outlined in the tutorial timetable (see tutorial workbook).

Participation marks (5%) require you attend tutorials and preparation marks (5%) require you to work in a group of 5 and give a presentation in the Week 6 tutorial (see Tutorial Workbook). Permission for any variation is generally only given for medical or compassionate reasons. All such requests must be emailed to the lecturer in charge and should be accompanied by documentary evidence from a social service professional (e.g. doctor, counsellor or psychologist). Each request will be assessed on its merits.

Assessment 3: Individual Assignment (15%)

Submit electronically through MyUni. Turnitin similarity software will be utilised to indicate potential plagiarism. Due before 5.59pm, Sunday 3 April. A 5% of mark awarded per day late penalty will be applied to late submissions.

This activity is aimed at you becoming aware of and engaged with academic literature in the management discipline while developing the skills necessary to become a critical consumer of others’ work.

Research published in most academic journals goes through a process of “blind review”, whereby a number of experts assess the merits (strengths and weaknesses) of a paper prior to the editor accepting it for publication. This process is generally “double blind” where neither the author(s) nor the referees know one another’s identity. For this assessment you are required to select and review an academic paper and provide a succinct and constructively critical review of its content. You can choose any scholarly paper for your analysis but it must be in line with the themes covered in the early course lectures. It is important for this assignment that you understand how to effectively use library resources. You may also find the Academy of Management Journal website useful for generally understanding the review process. It is recommended you discuss your chosen paper with your tutor to ensure it is a paper which explores what is and why or how one of the following concepts is relevant in a business context:

You are required to unambiguously insert a working hyperlink at the start of your submission so your marker can easily access the paper you have selected to review. The maximum length of your review is limited to 750 words so you must think carefully about choosing your words while developing your meaning(s). Note the use of 3 references (minimum) in the text of your review which you must detail in a reference list using the Harvard referencing style (the reference list is not counted in your 750 word limit). The review you submit should have 3 sections comprising approximately 250 words each and use the following section headings with a word count at the end of each section.

Section 1: The Paper’s Theoretical Development and Contribution (250 words)

In this section you should constructively critique the theory development of the paper. Some questions that you may reflect on include:- How well does the paper summarise a matter of conjecture or debate in the relevant academic literature?- Does the paper provide an adequate summary of the literature to date? (Here, you might like to provide a couple of references to relevant papers that the authors have not included in their paper).- Does the paper bring together a new understanding of managerial phenomena that has not been put forward by other authors (i.e. is there something novel and original in the paper)?

Section 2: The Paper’s Development of Empirical Evidence (250 words)

The progression of science (including social sciences like management) is based upon the analysis of evidence. Good academic work will assemble and analyse evidence with great care. For the evidence to be useful it should have some wider applicability (i.e. it should provide generalisable results) and the study should be able to be replicated by another researcher. You can choose a qualitative (case based) or quantitative (numbers based) paper, but a knowledge of statistics is not a pre-requirement for this course and critiquing statistical methodology should not become a major focus of your review. Some questions that you might reflect on for this section include:

- If the paper is based on case evidence, is the case a useful one for this research? Is the case unusual in such a way that the evidence is highly specific to the case and not relevant elsewhere?- If the paper is based on quantitative data (for example from a survey) are you confident that the survey has been well administered and is representative of the population under analysis?- Have the researcher(s) taken care in assembling evidence? Are you confident that they have asked the right questions to the best respondents in the organisation/industry under investigation?- If the case is based on secondary data (for example, an analysis of newspaper articles or other secondary materials) might there be some systematic biases present in the dataset (for example, SMEs are not as well reported as large firms)?- Is the case study material or quantitative data analysed appropriately and well? Is the analysis something a journalist would do, or does it follow good academic processes?

In this section, you should assess the importance and relevance of the paper’s contribution to the improvement of managerial practice. Some questions that you might reflect on for this section include:

- What contribution to better managerial practice and/or better organisational and social outcomes does the paper provide?- What is interesting about the paper that is important for management, organisations and society?

Assessment 4: Group Assignment (25%)

Case studies are an effective way to learn about complex issues. By using a real-life example, you will be able to identify multiple managerial issues relating to the material you learn in this course. There will be multiple ways to interpret a case. The purpose of this assignment is to formulate an argument which identifies what should be done, why it should be done, and using ample case evidence (in the form of citations, facts, figures, etc.) to support your argument. This project is about making sense of actual managerial issues, applying the theories and frameworks you have learned in this course, problem solving and decision making in complex situations, coping with ambiguities, working in a team, and reinforcing the research and writing skills you acquired from the Individual Assignment, including referencing.

There are two components – a written report (15%) and a group presentation (10%, in Weeks 10 and 11 tutorials, see more details in Section 9). To produce the report, you need to download and read the case study on MyUni, work in groups of 4 or 5, write a five-page (Times New Roman or Arial, 12 pt, 1.5 lines) business report using the appropriate headings and sub-headings.

Your report should include:

1. Introduction: Identify the key management issues from the case and identify your audience, i.e. who are you reporting to (shareholders, the board of directors, management, employees, etc.)?2. Analysis: Conduct a brief analysis using the theories and frameworks from the class to explain the causes and outcomes of the issues you identified in the Introduction.3. Alternative solutions: Drawing upon the concepts learned in this course, formulate feasible solutions and identify the pros and cons of each.4. Recommendation: Select one single solution that resolves the key problem, identify the action plan that should be taken, the risks to your recommendation, and how these risks might be mitigated.5. Desired state: From a management perspective, outline the ultimate goals that you wish to achieve and specifically relate these to your recommendation.6. Reference list

As part of the University’s SGDE requirements, your group needs to select a mentor to guide you in developing your assignment and there is the expectation your group will formally meet with your mentor twice during the semester. Your mentor can be either an academic in the University (i.e., the School of Marketing and Management), or a practitioner from the corporate world (e.g., a business manager). You are required to include your mentor’s name, qualification/position, and contact information (phone or email) as an attachment at the end of your submitted report. The role of your mentor is to guide your understanding of research and practice in the management discipline being a source of uncertain and contestable knowledge. The role of your tutor is to guide your understanding of the material learned in this course and how it can be applied to the case, as well as to guide your understanding of the performance criteria applied to assess this group task. Your role in this activity is to utilise the resources made available in order to apply yourself to the best of your abilities towards maximising the performance of your group. Thus you are expected to actively participate in all aspects of the assignment (e.g. in research, analysis, critical thinking, group work) and so provide a foundation for the development of skills, competencies and abilities required in your ongoing studies and managerial practice. More on the rationale for and aspects of working in groups can be found at Group Work at Adelaide University.

Once your group report is complete, one group member will submit ONE group file electronically through MyUni>3610_COMMGMT_1001>Course Assessment>Assignment 4. Turnitin similarity software will be utilised to indicate potential plagiarism (see Section 5.4 for similarity restrictions). Due before 5.59pm, Sunday 29 May, 2016. A 5% of mark awarded per day late penalty will be applied to late submissions.

Assessment 5: Final Exam (40%)

This assessment is aimed at testing your understanding of knowledge in the management discipline and capacity for logical, critical, and creative thinking. The examination will be held during the scheduled exam period. The contents of the exam will cover material discussed in the lectures and tutorials and the exact form of the exam will be discussed in the second half of the semester.

Submission

Please note that students must retain a copy of all assessments submitted. Assignments 3 and 4 should be submitted electronically through MyUni>3610_COMMGMT_1001>Course Assessment>Assignment 3 (or 4). Through this process, your assignment will automatically generate a unique identifier, the relevant Assessment Rubric and a Turnitin similarity report. You can resubmit your assignment multiple times (with the same file name) until the due date: time, but note that it may take several hours for turnitin.com to generate your similarity report.

Your similarity report will also indicate a colour related to the similarity index. In order for your assignment to be graded, a BLUE or GREEN similarity index must be achieved. The various possibilities and associated treatment of assignments are as follows:

- Blue (no matching words) = your assignment will be graded accordingly.- Green (one matching word - 24% similarity index) = your assignment will be graded accordingly.- Yellow (25-49% similarity index) = your assignment will not be graded and you will be able to resubmit within a 24 hour period as long as a blue or green index is realized. If resubmitted, your grade will be reduced by 10%. If not resubmitted, your grade will be 0.- Orange (50-74% similarity index) = your assignment will not be graded and you will be able to resubmit within a 24 hour period as long as a blue or green index is realized. If resubmitted, your grade will be reduced by 20%. If not resubmitted, your grade will be 0.- Red (75-100% similarity index) = your assignment will receive a grade of 0. There will be no opportunity to resubmit. Repeat offenders will be reported to the appropriate authorities.

Plagiarism is a serious violation of the Academic Honesty Policy. For more information on plagiarism, see: https://www.adelaide.edu.au/writingcentre/plagiarism/.

Course Grading

Grades for your performance in this course will be awarded in accordance with the following scheme:

M10 (Coursework Mark Scheme)

Grade

Mark

Description

FNS

Fail No Submission

F

1-49

Fail

P

50-64

Pass

C

65-74

Credit

D

75-84

Distinction

HD

85-100

High Distinction

CN

Continuing

NFE

No Formal Examination

RP

Result Pending

Further details of the grades/results can be obtained from Examinations.

Grade Descriptors are available which provide a general guide to the standard of work that is expected at each grade level. More information at Assessment for Coursework Programs.

GRADE REVIEW/RECONSIDERATION

Students (or groups) who believe their work should receive a different grade should apply in written within 48 hours of the publication of the grades. They must write/email directly to their marker, and copy to the course co-ordinators, an analytical piece, in which they give strong reasons on why they believe they have achieved the requirements. Students who choose to apply for a review or reconsideration must be logical and concise in their appeal, and provide as much detail as possible. Claims like “I believe I have done to the requirements and deserve a better grade” will not be accepted. It is at the marker’s discretion whether the work should be reviewed or reconsidered. If the application is accepted, the marker will conduct a review/reconsideration independent from the original grade, and the outcome can be a higher grade, no change, or a lower grade, and this new grade will be final.

Final results for this course will be made available through Access Adelaide.

The University places a high priority on approaches to learning and teaching that enhance the student experience. Feedback is sought from students in a variety of ways including on-going engagement with staff, the use of online discussion boards and the use of Student Experience of Learning and Teaching (SELT) surveys as well as GOS surveys and Program reviews.

SELTs are an important source of information to inform individual teaching practice, decisions about teaching duties, and course and program curriculum design. They enable the University to assess how effectively its learning environments and teaching practices facilitate student engagement and learning outcomes. Under the current SELT Policy (http://www.adelaide.edu.au/policies/101/) course SELTs are mandated and must be conducted at the conclusion of each term/semester/trimester for every course offering. Feedback on issues raised through course SELT surveys is made available to enrolled students through various resources (e.g. MyUni). In addition aggregated course SELT data is available.

Students are reminded that in order to maintain the academic integrity of all programs and courses, the university has a zero-tolerance approach to students offering money or significant value goods or services to any staff member who is involved in their teaching or assessment. Students offering lecturers or tutors or professional staff anything more than a small token of appreciation is totally unacceptable, in any circumstances. Staff members are obliged to report all such incidents to their supervisor/manager, who will refer them for action under the university's student’s disciplinary procedures.

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